03 April 2013

Trials and Tribulations: The Family Narrative

I have never suffered in my life. But my parents did. Trials and tribulations they went through, indeed.

There are many parts of their stories which I do not yet have the freedom to tell so this will be short. But they were betrayed and misunderstood by people closest to them. They owed a huge amount of money and had nowhere to turn to. Many times in their lives they were driven to desperation. My mother wanted to kill herself many times.

These were the happier, earlier days.

What impresses me most about the trials they went through was not so much their ability to ride through the storm, although that was amazing in itself. I was most impressed with how little these emotional hurts corrupted their hearts. They never turned away from the people who betrayed and misunderstood them. They exercised so much grace and forgiveness in the reconciliation and restoration of the relationships. Most of all, they did not become bitter and distrusting. They hardly talk about the past, complaining about what they suffered. They lived in the “now”.